"After landing and collecting our bags Santha and I were met groundside by our local connection, Sergey Kurgin. I say "connection" because you have to have one if you're going to travel in Russia. You can't just get up and go. Some solid citizen, or business, or tour operator must take responsibility for you and officially invite you, and you must have a prearranged and preplanned itinerary to preapproved destinations or your visa won't be issued--nor, if you somehow manage to slip through the net, will any hotel accommodate you on your route. Sergey owns a small private travel business called Sibalp, and I'd contacted him on the internet to help set up the trip."